Camera Flashes

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 23, 28 January 1939, Page 7 (Supplement)

Camera Flashes

yyHEN Paul Guifoyle found himself cast for liis 49tli "killer" role, he retorted: Don't put mv name on the screen; just bill me as'"The Dead End Kids' Father." + + ♦-♦- o x E of the "Dead End" kids, Leo Gracey, one of the gang, announces that he is about to be married. "I believe in long engagements," says Leo. "We're going to wait a month." ♦ ♦ + YOU are in for a wave of Abraham Lincoln pictures. Already Hollywood has purchased the screen rights of the Abraham Lincoln play in which Raymond Massev is scoring such a big success on Broadway at the moment. Meanwhile Metro have Robert Taylor mid Wallace Beery down to figure in •'Stand Up and Fight," another Lincoln i'pic, and for this purpose they have borrowed the railway coach in which America's President rode to Washington after his election. Much of the shooting in "Stand Up and Fight" will take place among the Mormons in Utah. * + ♦ ♦ DOUGLAS emerges as an expert pianist in "The Shining Hour," which has Joan Crawford and Margaret Sullavan topping the cast list. Usually actors are forced to master a musical instrument few a screen role, but in "The Shining Hour" this custom has been reversed. A sequence has been written into the script to introduce Melvvn Douglas' accomplished piano playing. It seems that nobody in Hollywood was aware that Melvy* Donglsrs was one of the.best pianists in the film city until he happened to mention the fact casually to Director Frank Borzage on The Shining How" art. . l&anMpon, the scenarists were iMuUuibud9Aa*4Mb»dtwft the warn —qneao.

HOWARD will next be seen in a screen version of Barrie's-fam-ous play, "The Admirable Crichton." + + + -f ~|~)OUGLAS FAIRBANKS, Junr., has gone to England to buy himself a country house. Eriends rounded up 27 offers oi properties for him to consider—in Kent, Sussex and Surrey. + + "f ♦ JAMES WHALE, who will shortly direct "The Man in the Iron Mask," has been investigating the Charles Laugliton and Ijeslie Howard units in England, with the idea of starting something similar himself in England. He made his latest Hollywood commitment for one picture only, in case he should be tempted to stay at home without due consideration. + + + + gABU is studying singing with Topli* Green, famous baritone and professor of music. His teacher says he has a good ear for music and a fine Indian voice, "whose Eastern qualities will be preserved." He will sing in "The Thief of Bagdad," in which he co-stars with Conrad Veidt, Jon Hall and Vivien Leigh. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ JJP-AND-COMEVG James Stewart is playing the rear end of a horse in "Ice Follies," and wondering hard whether or not it will advance his career. The script introduces Stewart as a champion ice skater who loses his nerve after breaking a leg. Then, by some strange mental process, the scenarists decided that the best way fov him to regain his confidence was to* play a comedy horse act on skates. The cure for his nerves is based on the theory that as the rear end of the horse he is •We to hoM on to his ptrbuc, Ltf*v Aj*"es, Him steadying himself ntaUHy a* wJi m jjlupiiaaf'